Abstract
Emission bands associated with PAH molecules are observed in the direction of some classes of AGNs like Seyfert 2, LINERs and obscured quasars (e.g. Kaneda et al., 2008, Sansigre et al., 2008 and Sales et al. 2013). The molecular stability in these environments suggest the presence of very dense gas (∼ 1023-24 cm-2) to shield the cloud of PAHs against X-ray radiation (Voit, 1992, Tielens, 2011, Sales et al., 2013). We examined the photochemistry of simple PAHs: naphtalene (C10H8), anthracene (C14H10), methyl-anthracene (C15H12) and pyrene (C16H10) at the photon energies of 275 eV, 310 eV, 1900 eV and 2500 eV in order to apply the findings at the AGN scenario. The absolute single and double photoionization and photodissociation cross sections were determined for each molecule at each energy. Their ionization and destruction induced by X-rays were examined in the conditions of the circumnuclear region of NGC 1808, a Seyfert 2 galaxy, where PAH emission was detected at 26 pc from the central object (Sales et al., 2013). It was verified the higher photostability of PAHs without functional groups attached. At higher photon energies, the results suggest a higher production yield of double charged PAHs in comparision with the single charged ones (e.g., 2 × higher for double ionized naphtalene at 2500 eV). The production of double charged molecules increase with the size of the molecules. We also discuss a minimum formation rate of PAH to balance the photodestruction rate and maintain a minimum density for their detection (e.g. 4,0× 10-7 M⊙ year-1 for a column density NH of 1023 cm-2 at 26 pc).
